The domain name org is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) of the Domain Name System (DNS) used in the Internet. The name is truncated from organization. It was one of the original domains established in 1985, and has been operated by the Public Interest Registry since 2003. The domain was originally intended for non-profit entities, but this restriction was not enforced and has been removed. The domain is commonly used by schools, open-source projects, and communities, but also by some for-profit entities. The number of registered domains in org has increased from fewer than one million in the 1990s, to ten million as of June 2012.

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The domain ".org" was one of the original top-level domains,[1] with com, us, edu, gov, mil and net, established in January 1985. It was originally intended for non-profit organizations or organizations of a non-commercial character that did not meet the requirements for other gTLDs. The MITRE Corporation was the first group to register an org domain with mitre.org in July 1985.[2] The TLD has been operated since January 1, 2003 by Public Interest Registry, who assumed the task from VeriSign Global Registry Services, a division of Verisign.[3]

Registrations of subdomains are processed via accredited registrars worldwide. Anyone can register a second-level domain within org, without restrictions.[4][5] In some instances subdomains are being used also by commercial sites, such as craigslist.org. According to the ICANN Dashboard (Domain Name) report, the composition of the TLD is diverse, including cultural institutions, associations, sports teams, religious, and civic organizations, open-source software projects, schools, environmental initiatives, social, and fraternal organizations, health organizations, legal services, as well as clubs, and community-volunteer groups. In some cases subdomains have been created for crisis management.[which?] Some cities, among them Rybnitsa[1] in Transnistria) also have org domain names.

The number of ORG domains registered with the Public Interest Registry.

Although organizations anywhere in the world may register subdomains, many countries, such as Australia (au), Japan (jp), Argentina (ar), Bolivia (bo), Uruguay (uy), Turkey(tr), Somalia (so), Sierra Leone (sl), Russia (ru), Bangladesh (bd), and the United Kingdom (uk), have established a second-level domain with a similar purpose under their ccTLD. Such second-level domains are usually named org or or.[citation needed]

In 2009, the org domain consisted of more than 8 million registered domain names,[6] 8.8 million in 2010,[7] and 9.6 million in 2011.[8] The Public Interest Registry registered the ten millionth .ORG domain in June, 2012.[9] When the 9.5 millionth .org was registered in December 2011, .org, became the third largest gTLD.[10]

On June 2, 2009, The Public Interest Registry announced[12] that the org domain is the first open generic top-level domain and the largest registry overall that has signed its DNS zone with Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC). This allows the verification of the origin authenticity and integrity of DNS data by conforming DNS clients.

As of June 23, 2010, DNSSEC was enabled for individual second-level domains,[13] starting with 13 registrars.